


hurricane and ether

by grit



Category: Naruto
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Gen, Iron Release, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-22 20:20:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18534790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grit/pseuds/grit
Summary: Shards of glass bury themselves in Sakura's flesh, her heart, her eyes, and she's in pain, so much pain, but she has long since yanked her hand around Kaguya's neck, drawing her in, making her suffer with her.





	hurricane and ether

**Author's Note:**

> **1\. hurricane** ˈhʌrɪk(ə)n _noun_ a violent storm with very strong winds  
>  **2\. ether** ˈiːθə _noun_ 1 a colourless liquid used as a solvent and, in the past, in medicine to make people unconscious before an operation 2 the upper part of the sky 3 the air, when it is thought of as the air in which radio or electronic communications take place  
> 
> 
> * * *
> 
> [the title](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/51699/hospital-parking-lot-april)

When Sakura's fist connects with Kaguya's sharp-edged otherwordly face, the goddesses' eyes widen for the fraction of a second. 

Then the wind picks up howling around them, drowning out Naruto's distressed shouts, and the world shatters. It shatters much like the ornate vase a little pink-haired child knocked over at her grandparents' little over a lifetime ago, devastation and panic crawling under her skin, leaving her just as breathless.

Shards of glass bury themselves into Sakura's flesh, her heart, her eyes, and she's in pain, so much pain, but she has long since yanked her hand around Kaguya's neck, drawing her in, making her suffer with her.

_I go down, you go down._

There are colours vibrant all around them until they're not and everything disappears.

* * *

Sakura has lost sight of Kaguya, sight of everyone and everything, and she can barely move, let alone open her eyes.

She wishes this to be just a Genjutsu, knows that no illusion can completely fool her, and settles for a bad dream. Sakura cries out because it's dark and there's pressure all around her, a buildup. She thrashes, kicks and tries to curl up – and then there's light dancing around her, she can't see and her ears are ringing, a high-pitched cry.

She breathes and she shivers. She is touched, wrapped in a blanket and Sakura can't comprehend – she doesn't understand – 

Her limbs aren't hurting anymore, but a bone-deep exhaustion settles over her and she passes out.

* * *

When she comes to her senses again, it is dark and she can barely see anything. She edges towards the only light source, head still spinning, but stubbornly crawls towards a small strand of light escaping a half-shut door. Bars block her way and her mind whirls. Was she captured – where is her team, _where is she?_

Sakura struggles to her feet. The floor is squishy and she stares down incredulously at the pudgy fists grabbing the bars without any real strength behind them, and she realizes that they are _hers._

She stumbles backwards, crumples in a heap on the soft mattress of her cot and cries.

Hands, small hands, curl around her neck and pull her up roughly. Sakura stares at another infant, and she doesn't have to look twice to recognize those eyes.

Kaguya watches her intensely, visibly torn between disgust and intrigue, and squishes Sakura's tiny, tiny throat.

* * *

They don't talk, they can't talk. Their names are Ran and Yū and their parents are Suna nin. Yū's first word is “stop”. Ran's first word is “No.” 

There's a silent agreement between them. They will ignore each other as much as they can, but Sakura isn't naive. She's sure that Kaguya will make her suffer for seeing her so helpless, for dragging her into this new body.

She presses her lips together and practices her chakra control. Sakura knows skill will be her weapon, and similar to the way a sword has to be taken care of with a whetstone, skills must be honed.

Duty weighs her down like chains, but she sets to work and does what's necessary.

* * *

“You won't stand in my way,” Kaguya tells her at some point, and her tongue is laced with unspoken threats.

Sakura lifts her chin stubbornly, looking at the mirror-image of her new self. Their hair is burnt copper, and their skin is wind-chafed and dark. Both are still awkward at steering their limbs, but their minds are razor-sharp and their voices cut.

“I'll do what it takes,” she replies evenly, steel to her bones from when she trumped the Third Kazekage's metal release, and in this life she's making it her own.

Kaguya's face twists into a murderous sneer. It looks adorable to the innocent eye, for they are four years old and twin sisters.

* * *

Their parents are from a small Suna clan, and the village is braided traditions, a patchwork of nomadic dialects gathered in the heart of the desert. Chakra threads through their lives like yarn, and Sakura practices her control diligently, never taking her eyes off the goddess prowling her sleep.

Kaguya has her fun piling nightmares on top of each other and twisting them into something unrecognizable, until even Sakura can't tell how far they stretch and where her own mind begins. 

But day brings clarity and Ran doesn't harm Yū, so Sakura bears it. She tosses and turns in her bed, but being restless runs through her veins too.

Though alert and watchful, Sakura finds that Kaguya bides her time. She suspects the woman wants growth for herself first, and maybe, just maybe, she's human and fallible this time.

* * *

When they graduate the Academy, they're put on the same team, as siblings often are. The third member has a lopsided grin set in his freckled face and their teacher is a woman scarred.

Sakura takes a liking to them almost immediately, but Kaguya is her usual charming self and with carefully phrased remarks she makes sure that they don't become too friendly.

Sometimes Sakura wonders if Kaguya just wants to make her life as miserable as she can, or if she just likes being the only person she's even remotely close to. The woman has a possessive streak a mile wide, and Sakura wouldn't be surprised if the ten years of tolerating her presence right beside her made her qualify as a pet in the Kaguya's twisted mind.

The nightmares stop.

* * *

The distinct lack of Inner hits Yū especially hard during those long stretches of time she spends on her own or in doubtfully good company, practicing her metal release. It's a trait passed down to the firstborns of her family, but the Third Kazekage is only a distant shadow of the past, and only her uncle speaks of him sometimes.

“Have you tried controlling people yet?” Ran asks, bored with the training already.

Yū isn't nearly as prodigious or picturesque like Ran, but she works hard like she's always done.

She wipes the sweat off her forehead and jerks her shoulders into a half-shrug, not bothering to answer. Iron levels in bloodstreams are far too low as an estimate and besides, she hasn't even perfected her control over her traditional release yet, so she wouldn't get very far. 

Ran smiles, too graceful to show teeth, but it's savage all the same. “Oh, trust me, Yū. It's going to come very easily to you.”

Yū glares at her, but the thought lingers.

* * *

As Chunin, they wander the dunes and survive their first sandstorm. Their blood roots in the sand, but sand carries and the landscape changes with the winds. 

Sand trickles through the hourglass like time and through a lens in shades of brown the women reborn turn different.

The desert is a coarse mother to both of them and they're stitched together regardless of what they like. They need each other to pave their way through dust and thirst, so in the haze of combat Yū deflects an attack meant to end Ran's life and it's almost instinctual.

Yū spikes metal into the enemy like daggers and it's only after the fight that she realizes they were wearing a Konoha headband.

Ran doesn't bat an eyelash at her sobs, but she doesn't mock them either.

* * *

Yū makes people dance like puppets on strings. It's a skill forged by years of control exercises, anatomic knowledge and her family techniques. Ran tortures enemies like a living nightmare, trapped all alone with demons in their heads. She's a goddess in a human body, but her spirit remains unbroken.

They're terrifying in this life, and nomads to the bone, so they don't make it past fourteen to their Jounin promotion before defecting.

At night, Ran stays away for hours at a time, and she returns with blood staining her satisfaction. Yū follows her once, and she never figures out how to feel about the slaughter, but she supposes men rotten to their core deserve to die anyway.

* * *

Ran starts fading first. Resignation is written across her face and she shoves Yū away roughly when she tries to touch her, to make sure she can still touch her.

During the full moon, Kaguya disappears and it's like Ran never was. An ache in her chest betrays her hurt, and Yū takes it into her still-opaque hands and Sakura clings to it.

* * *

When they open their eyes it's to a sky freckled with stars and planets. They are one, they are the moon, and Kaguya weeps in their raging mind. They will not be caged.

Their voice finds an open mind in a little girl, five-years old and devastated because she just knocked her grandparent's precious vase over. They are Kaguya and Sakura, they are Inner and the moon and their lives are stitched together.

_You go down, I go down._

**Author's Note:**

> to clarify: this is a loop. A time loop. Kaguya and Sakura were always going to end up right where they started, and Kaguya is aware of this but Sakura, since she always comes from her first life does not. Kaguya blames younger!Sakura for making this loop happen in the first place because she already knows older!sakura so she tries to fight against it, but it's futile


End file.
